The Politics Thread

[Wales2004]

Let him have one. Put him in one all by himself and allow him to roll down the windows and get sucked out and on his way down he'll understand why.

[Wales2004]

I sincerely hope that I have given this enough thought. I cannot knock the U.N. if they are trying to look at the bigger picture. Like any other nation, Israel is going to look out for itself regardless how that might affect the entire world. The U.N. should be looking at the consequences for the entire world and not a specific nation. I don't think it's about anti-semitism for the world at large (it is definitely so for adversaries), but I don't suppose others give as much thought to just hating people due to their religion (even if there are Christians who see their religion as the truth).

Whatever goes through the minds of the people who award the Nobel Prizes are far from whatever I might think. I'm not the awards type so this is like telling me that the people who vote for the Grammys consider Justin Beiber a really gifted musician. But I do believe I understand your point.

If people are looking at Israel unfairly then they are wrong but I am not going to use one wrong to justify another by lumping Arabs and muslims into one extremist category. That's simply not my way.

[Roman]

You may call it like you see it, but that type of bigotry is something most of the planet left behind a long time ago.

[Max]

I have avoided this forum lately (because politics is simply one thing you can't change others' minds about), but I do have to say that any statement that Qfan is a bigot is total bulls-hit. He is far from an apologist for Israel, as evidenced by his comment, "Israel isn't a country of saints, they did a lot of crappy things to the Palestinians en route to becoming a country and treat them unfairly today. Whoever came up with the map for Israel and Palestine had to have known it was unworkable." He was very even-handed in criticizing the Jews for their faults. But, he accurately pointed out that Muslims/Palestinians have much bigger flaws:

Of course, there are a sizable number of moderate Muslims who condemn these atrocious behaviors. The sad truth, however, is that the number of Muslims condoning these actions is still way too high. Simply pointing this out most definitely does not make one a bigot.

While Romney gets trashed for everything under the sun, Obama is "too busy" to meet with Benjamin Netanyahu (yet he strangely finds the time to spend with Letterman, Beyonce, and Jay Z). Again, he doesn't have to agree with everything the Prime Minister says, but how incredibly disrespectful is it to not meet with the him. It speaks volumes that maintaining his cool guy image comes first.

Edited September 24, 2012 by Max

[quartermainefan]

You're tiresome. What bigotry? What did I say that was bigoted and steeped in untruths? Did I imagine these things? If a fraternity gets in trouble for hazing and I say "it's frat boys" am I now anti-fratboy and bigoted? When I said history showed us serial killers tend to be white males just a few pages back was it your theory I hated white people too? Or just white men? That is actually a perfect topic to expose the lack of thought in your posts. It is your opinion I am a bigot. Last month it was your opinion I am a racist. You said these things because I dared discuss events in the news concerning a black man and arab countries. Ok fair enough. I said serial killers tend to be white men. Where was your indignation then and accusations I hated white men? Or perhaps it is you who are the racist and was secretly happy to see white men be bashed?

Edited September 25, 2012 by quartermainefan

[Roman]

If your ignorance does not tell you what bigotry Then i will not sit here and try to explain it to someone who won't listen in the first place. And everything else you said I never did. I called it like i saw it and now you're upset, yet you've been posting statements like this for some time and anyone who challenges you on these statements gets a lecture about how you have the right to your opinion. Well, just think of others when you make statements like those.

I see you still pop in and post whatever to get rises out of people and then retreat when the fire gets too hot. Please continue to comment such as this, so those who are first time posters in this forum can see what and where you truly come from.

Yep, that's who you want for POTUS. A RINO who wonders why planes traveling at 500 mph do not roll down the windows. He must have that jet that the X-Men use.

[GoldenDogs]

<<Popping popcorn, grabbing a blanket to snuggle under, and watching this forum VERY closely!!>>

[Max]

This is the first time I have ever heard of an Obama supporter refer to Romney as a RINO. (Usually, only those like Rush Limbaugh make that charge.) If he is in the RINO league like Michael Bloomberg and Lincoln Chafee, then there is little reason for Democrats to fear him.

To switch subjects (on to a topic that hasn't been discussed much), I'd like to talk about control of Congress. The majority of competitive Senate races have broken the Democrats' way in the past month (most likely because of a reflection of the presidential race). It is way to early to make final predictions, but if the elections were held today, I think that the GOP would have a net gain of only one seat (which means a new Democratic majority of 52-48). Below is a summary of how I think the races would go if held today:

GOP Gains: Montana, Nebraska, & North Dakota

Dem Gains: Maine & Massachusetts

Competitive Races GOP Will Win: Indiana, Montana, North Dakota, & Nevada

Competitive Races Dems Will Win: Connecticut, Massachusetts, Missouri (which still remains somewhat close), Virginia, & Wisconsin (I really don't consider the races in Florida & Ohio all that competitive, but the Democrats will win those as well.)

The House is the only bright spot for the Republicans. If the election was held today, they would still retain their majority, as political expert Larry Sabato (whose track record is one of the very best) predicts a net Dem gain of only four seats.

I am going to post the following two tables from his "Crystal Ball" website. The first are the toss-up races that are currently held by Democrats, as well as races rated as lean and likely Democratic. (If a bold name appears in the latter two columns, it means that a Republican currently occupies that seat.)

Here is a similar table for the GOP:

I will make my final predictions for the House and Senate shortly before Election Day. The same holds true for the presidential race as well, though if it was held today, it would be 332 electoral votes for Obama and 206 for Romney. The only two states that would change party affiliations from 2008 would be Indiana and North Carolina, which Romney will win (but McCain lost by the slimmest of margins). Also, while McCain won the state of Nebraska, he lost one electoral vote because he barely lost a Congressional District (one which Romney is very likely to carry). (Maine and Nebraska only award two electoral votes to the statewide winner, and then award one electoral vote to the winner of each Congressional District.)

Edited September 25, 2012 by Max

[Roman]

Umm, I didn't asked you what you thought. God Bless.

[Roman]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/25/scott-brown-elizabeth-warren-native-american_n_1912920.html

They have nothing at all, so they resort to this.

[DRW50]

It's racist trash, as are his claims that she doesn't "look" Cherokee.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2012/09/really_scott_brown.php?ref=fpblg

Jeanne Cooper talked years ago about how she had to hear this too and how offended she was.

[ReddFoxx]

This surrounds a congressional race in Florida involving a really corrupt member of Congress, David Rivera. It's a long story, but this blurb sounded so much like a soap opera, that I had to post it. This woman was one of his helpers in a scheme to rig the Democratic primary.

http://www.bradenton.com/2012/09/25/4214177/nudity-politics-gunfire-and-a.html

[DRW50]

That he was elected in the first place is an embarrassment.

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/08/rubios_roomie_gop_candidate_for_congress_has_quite.php

[Wales2004]

When it comes to race and the discussion of it, I live on a very special island which means my views are unlikely to be close to whatever passes as the norm on this topic. I generally understand from where others come on this topic because I pretty much had to travel down most of those same roads to get to my island but there was never a single day in my life that I ever considered race was more significant as a human trait than anything else.

So the things that Scott Brown and his people are doing can be racist, offensive etc. and plain wrong but his claims that Elizabeth Warren does not "look Cherokee" are in line with how Americans are taught to identify people by race and that is by looking at them. The two most common methods for race identification is that people decide based on how a person looks and people decide based on what they know about a person's background. Black people can "pass for white" when they "look white" and no one knows their background. Movies such as Pinky and The Human Stain illustrate that quite nicely.

If Barack Obama actualy "looked white" instead of "black" then imagine how differently people would have reacted to him. If he still won no one would claim that they can dream of being president now that they see someone who looks like them in the White House. One of the things I find baffling about that is exactly who did Barack Obama have to see in the White House to make it possible for him to dream that he could be president? When people pass this brilliant way of always thinking that they need to see someone who looks like them in order to believe they can accomplish whatever, do they ever consider how many more uneducated people there would have been in America if certain segments of the population needed to see someone who looked like them before they could read, write, etc.? Kids need to be taught how to be innovative not handicapped waiting for someone else to pave the way for them because what if that person never shows up?

[Wales2004]

In that case A Very Happy Birthday to You!!!

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